"The Other Four Hours"

A Third Publication by Garrett Albertson
Describes How a Person Can Improve
Their Life by Reading Four Hours a Day

My great grandfather had barely a seventh grade education, but through work and study managed to pass the rigorous ordination into the Presbyterian Church. How did he do this? Well, he was largely self-taught, and attributes the greatest factor in his learning to reading for four hours a day.

One of the chapters in his book I am republishing under the name Frontier Stories, talks about how he experienced an awakening from one sentence he read as a twenty year old. That one sentence transformed his life from one of a time waster to a "time miser" as he puts it. One sentence sets his life on a course he had never considered, and had previously been unqualified for.

Reading this chapter entitled, "An Awakening" reminds me of how relevant my great grandfather's wisdom is even to today's generations. He writes, "It is one thing to lay hold of a truth; quite another to have truth lay hold of you. When this great truth burned into my heart, what a difference it made in my life! After this I lived by the clock. Each day had twenty-four hours; four of them I must secure for reading purposes. At first I read indiscriminately, then to a purpose."

My great grandfather goes on to recount how, not allowing his station or the obstacles in life to hinder him, in an era where secondary education was not expected or easily available, he pursued education and never stopped reading in order to create a life that had meaning and impact. And that is exactly what happened. Going on to achieve a great many accomplishments within the Presbyterian church, including starting more than 250 Sunday School's across the nation, my great grandfather holds the honor of being one of the founding fathers of the very first presbyterian church in Enid Oklahoma.

Be sure to read this entire chapter in Frontier Stories to find out what that sentence was that transformed his life!